Semel gives up Yahoo CEO title to co-founder Jerry Yang

Terry Semel ended his six-year run as Yahoo Inc.'s chief executive officer on Monday, and the company's co-founder Jerry Yang has succeeded him as CEO. The change came just a week after a showdown with shareholders, where Semel conveyed Yahoo's lackluster performance during the past 18 months.

Semel's resignation wasn't a surprise for some analysts. Yahoo's stock price had failed to recover after falling 38% in 2006, there was growing discontent among stockholders, and even senior execs were unhappy with the company's direction.Semel has been the focus of intense criticism in the past years due to Yahoo's inability to capitalize on the fast-growing market for search engine advertising, failing to keep up with competitor Google. Board members are optimistic about Jerry Yang giving a new direction and vision to the company, board Director Ed Kozel said Yang is the "best person in the world to run Yahoo now" and cited Yang's strategic, technical, product, and market leadership as attributes.